Alonso pleased Alpine 'limited the damage' with Styrian GP F1 points haul

Fernando Alonso said he was pleased to ‘maximise’ Alpine’s performance at Formula 1’s Styrian Grand Prix with another top ten finish.
Fernando Alonso (ESP) Alpine F1 Team A521.
Fernando Alonso (ESP) Alpine F1 Team A521.
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Alonso started and finished ninth at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday to continue his points scoring streak, stretching back to Azerbaijan.

The Spaniard surrendered a position to Lance Stroll on the opening lap, with the Aston Martin driver pulling off a spectacular move around the outside of Turn 6.

Alonso lost out to the Ferraris as the race progressed, ultimately falling back to where he had started.

Reflecting on the Styrian weekend, Alonso felt ninth was simply where Alpine deserved to be.

“It was good,” Alonso said after the race on Sunday. “I think being in the top 10 again and scoring some points was the target. I don’t think that we could have done much better than P9 so I take these two points. 

“Maybe Stroll we could have fought a bit with him with better luck, but Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, they were way too fast for us today so P9 is well-deserved today and we take these points.”

With F1 returning to the Red Bull Ring this weekend for the Austrian Grand Prix, Alonso predicts it will be another “challenging” weekend.

“Obviously we know our strengths and we know our weaknesses so we try to use them in different places,” Alonso added. “I don’t think Austria is our best circuit as we saw yesterday, and as we see today. Unfortunately we have two races here so we have to manage the damage that we can have in terms of points. 

“I think we did it well in race 1 as we scored one more than AlphaTauri and two less than Aston Martin so we managed to limit this damage, but yeah, in race 2 it’s going to be another challenging this weekend. We try to do better, but it is going to be difficult. I think this is our limit. I feel like I was maximising everything being in q3, maximising today, being in the points. I don’t think there is more. 

“You need some retirements or luck. It was a very flat race, no retirements, no safety car, nothing happened, so ninth is what you get.”

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